Deputy Chairman Of Banned Tajik Islamic Party Detained

DUSHANBE -- The first deputy chairman of Tajikistan's Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT), Saidumar Husaini, has been detained in the Tajik capital.

IRPT Deputy Chairman Mahmadali Hait told RFE/RL that Husaini was taken into custody on September 16 when boarding a flight for Almaty at Dushanbe's international airport.

No reason was given for why Husaini had been stopped, Hait said, adding that the IRPT's first deputy chairman is now being held at a detention center of Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security.

Last month Tajikistan's Justice Ministry banned the IRPT and gave the party 10 days to halt all activities.

The deadline was September 7.

The IRPT played an important part in Tajikistan's devastating 1992-97 civil war, which left tens of thousands dead and over a million people displaced.

It had been represented in the Tajik parliament for 15 years until its total defeat in the last parliamentary election in March.